


Of Sweaters and Coffee

by LiaShinigami



Category: League of Legends RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Shapeshifters, Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Awkward Romance, Elves, M/M, author projects too much of self onto characters, casual cursing, fakenut, idk what to tag, someone help me this title is horrible, still the best shipname ever
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-27
Updated: 2019-02-07
Packaged: 2019-05-14 11:58:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14769182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiaShinigami/pseuds/LiaShinigami
Summary: When Wangho decides to go to university in the human world and away from Seoul, he did expect a lot of things...racism maybe...and a bachelors degree at the end of it.What he did not expect was Lee Sanghyeok and his life being completely turned around.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So.......I am bad at summaries....  
> Just...read it I guess??  
> Also I started writing this like half a year ago and kinda had an extreme writers block so I am uploading it now to give me some motivation to write!!
> 
> This will be uploaded very slowly....don't expect things from me...  
> Also this is my first ever fanfic that I am publishing on the internet please don't judge my shitty over the top descriptive writing lol

„Wangho hurry the fuck up or we are too late for the orientation class!!”

“Yeah yeah…..Coming..” Wangho let out a big yawn and got off the bus. Sungu dragged him and Haneul over the street to the grey building in which the introductory class for the new first year students would be held. Despite its name, the building was nowhere near a copper colour, which confused Wangho’s sleepy mind for a few seconds.

He didn’t know why he let himself be dragged into this. Just a few more hours of sleep in his tiny dorm room would be enough since he stayed up all night playing a new game and failing miserably.

When they entered the building they saw a stream of people going up the stairs to the second floor. A steady flow of Humans with specks of Elves, Fae and Dwarfs. There were probably also some Shape-shifters and Witches but as they had no visible traits when not in action you could not distinguish them.

“Let’s just follow them upstairs” Sungu already started dragging them to the stairs. “If we don’t get any seats I will poison your food so that your hair will fall out.” “It’s not like this is mandatory, chill out”

Wangho rolled his eyes but still climbed the stairs faster since he really liked his hair. He had spend quite some money to get the perfect honey blond colour and he would like to keep it for as long as possible, thank you very much.

When they entered the big auditorium they looked around for seats and managed to find some in the back. Settled down Wangho reached up and fixed his hood, which he always had up to conceal his ears. His glasses did a good job of concealing his eyes from a distance but his ears had always been kind of a bigger problem.

As inter-special relationships were still not as common and mixed species children faced quite the prejudice, he tried to cover up his traits as much as possible. His ears were stubbier than that of the average elf but pointier than a humans. Eyes a honey gold, even though elven eyes normally ranged from lilacs to blues and greens. When the sun was not out his eyes were normally not a problem, as they appeared a light brown. Because of this he tried not to go out too much, which resulted in him looking like a ghost with his pale skin.

Wangho was glad to be in university now. Nobody could force him to take off his hood and reveal his heritage, which would be much more comfortable than high school for sure. But then again, everything was better than high school if he was honest. He could also just simply sleep through lectures now if he wanted and that was exactly what he was going to do.

“Hello and welcome to the new first years. As you should be well aware our lovely university has been the first to accept non-human students and has the widest variety of courses on supernatural content.” As soon as the old lady began to speak to the hundreds of new students, Wangho began to drift off. He really should manage his sleep schedule until his classes start.

“Hey, stay awake” Sungu shook him slightly. “You have to know the stuff she is talking about!!” “No I don’t….I already signed up for my classes and everything I want to know I can find online, Google is my friend.”, murmured Wangho while snuggling even further into his elbow. “But don’t come to me if you have any questions about anything”

Sungu listened diligently while taking notes. Haneul was beside him reading a webtoon about university life on his phone while giggling about both his friends and the webtoon.

It was Monday on the first week of classes and Wangho already had a fucked up sleeping schedule while his classes had the most horrible times ever.

He had to get up Tuesdays to Fridays at seven in the morning to make it on time for his lectures and seminars at 8 o’clock. Sometimes he had three to four classes directly following each other and other times he had six hours of nothing until six in the evening. He was just glad he didn’t have to take all of the language classes. That’s what he gets for double majoring in cultural studies and elvish.

Seeing his time table for the first time he almost regretted choosing a double major, but it was better than doing one after the other and having to pay more for his second degree. He could be glad, that the tuition wasn’t as high in this university.

While thinking about his worries he drifted off with the woman talking as a constant background noise. When he woke up, Wangho saw that Sungu was packing is stuff and the lecture hall was starting to get less crowded, as people were leaving. Groggily he reached for his phone and looked at the time.  
12 o’clock. They should probably get something to eat.

With his sleeping schedule this fucked up, his eating habits were on an equally horrible level. Since his father was almost never home and he ate at Sungu’s place most of the time, he did not know how to cook at all. His meals mostly consisted of instant noodles and pizza with the occasional proper meal while eating out.

It’s not like he was doing any sports so he didn’t really need the energy, but he guessed he would be a lot more chubbier if it was not for his elven genes. In that aspect he really hit the jackpot.

“Come on, let’s get something to eat. I’m starving” Haneul ushered them out of the room, down the stairs and back to the big entrance hall. “I saw an Indian place down the street from where we came from and I’m really craving curry!”

And that was where they went. Wangho thought about how having curry for his first meal of the day was probably not a good decision, but he didn’t really care much to be honest. He figured, that he could just fix his sleeping and eating habits when he had to follow a proper schedule again.

“Wangho” “Huh?”

He looked up and saw that Sungu was looking at him expectantly. “I said u were right.” “About what? I’m right about a lot of things…” He had to dodge a smack on the head.

“About the introductory class you dimwit. She didn’t really say anything that I didn’t already know.” “Could have told you that beforehand.”, Haneul murmured while scooping up his last spoon of curry. _Wtf Kim Haneul are you a vacuum cleaner??_ Wangho hadn’t even finished half of his. Well...he wasn’t a particularly fast eater anyways.

“And now you made me regret even getting up this morning.” Wangho lazily scooped up some curry and rice. “I am never EVER going to listen to you again and get up for non-mandatory stuff. I’d rather have my sleep so that I don’t look as dead.”

“Oh shut the fuck up you know you could not have showered or slept for days and you would still look good. That’s what elven genes are for, idiot.” Haneul clearly had enough of his bullshit. But he still knew that his friend had some major complexes that came with being mixed.

“Anyways, I still have some stuff to do today. So start eating faster and let’s go.”

“Stuff to do” turned out to be going to the library and doing a tour there. Being the still tired but good friend he was, Wangho followed Sungu around like a duckling. Haneul knew that his major provided one so he bid his farewell and went home.

_That brat is just going to sleep and leave me behind...traitor._ Wangho really missed his bed at this moment. While strolling through the library a little bit behind the group, he looked around the shelves.

There were big rooms with tables outside for group working and here, inside where all the books were there were tables littered between the shelves, as well as bigger spaces with tables and computers for silent working. There was even a corner reserved for reading newspapers.

He couldn’t stop himself from stopping and looking at the titles of the books. Human history next to medical scripts and religious texts. It seemed like there was no system, like it was complete chaos and you could find nothing. But from his extensive Google sessions he knew that there was a catalog on the Internet where you could search for certain topics and find books. And here in the library everything was sorted by the time of arrival.

The group walked up the stairs to the computer spaces but Wangho had his eyes set on a sign that read “weavers’ hall”. _That sounds….weird…_  
He slipped away under the stairs and went to look at the sign. It seemed like in this hall, there were the older scripts written by humans about the other realm.

Deciding that he wanted to explore on his own for a bit, he walked through the glass bridge that connected the two buildings. It smelled like old books (wow surprise) and he saw only two people sitting at the desks that were aligned on the top floor.  
He walked over the creaking floor as quietly as he could and walked down the stairs to the other floor.

This library was practically built like a labyrinth with movable walls separating more desks from the rows and rows of bookshelves. He barely registered the sign, that told him there was a room with a restroom and a copier.

While strolling through the shelves he took note of the variety of topics that resided in the particular part of the library. There were whole book series explaining Fae history spanning over multiple rows. He even found an old high-elven spellbook which contained recipes for healing tees and potions.

The further he went the more he was fascinated by this strange part of the library. He found some more lone tables scattered around the shelves and arrived at another set of stairs. When he climbed them, he realized that this floor was not connected to the one he came from. _Woah….how is it so quiet here??_ The only thing he could hear were his own footsteps on the creaking floor.

He slowly took a look around and realized that this must be the last corner of the library one could access and there seemed to be absolutely nobody here. Since he was still really tired, he decided to sit down for a moment and simply wait for Sungu to text him.  
After a while he couldn’t stop yawning and rested his head on his folded arms. His tired brain barely registered someone walking up the stairs and sitting down a few seats away from him.

He drifted off to the constant sound of someone alternating between flipping pages in a book and tipping away on a laptop.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know...another short one.....sorry  
> I swear I there will be longer chapters coming!!  
> (Also still struggling to write but I also want to update soooo here's something at least haha)

He woke up when the constant clicking and paper shuffling sounds were replaced by a bag being zipped up. The person sitting near him must be getting ready to go home.

He still refused to raise his head out of the dark comfort of his crossed arms and was therefore almost suffering a heart attack when someone poked his on the arm.  
When he sprang up in his seat he headbutted the person waking him in the process and all he heard was a quiet “Ah...shit..”.

Wangho quickly turned around and bowed several times while spluttering apologies in a whispering voice. “Shit sorry, are you ok??”

“Yeah, it’s ok…..God your skull is hard...” _No shit dude it’s made of bone after all…_ Wangho resisted rolling his eyes. Not knowing where to put his hands, he still had them hovering in front of mystery guy’s chest. When he realized his awkwardness he slouched, diverted his eyes and instinctively took a step back.

“I just wanted to tell you that your phone is lighting up like crazy….also this part of the library closes in like...half an hour.” Wangho didn’t even have the time to look at the guy’s face before he adopted the speed of light and checked his phone, that was lying behind him on the desk. 9:36 pm.

“Shit...”, was the only thing he muttered. He had been asleep in the library for at least four hours. He spun around to look if he had everything with him, grabbed his bag and whisper shouted a fast “Thanks man, also sorry about that!!” before he ran as quietly as he could down the stairs.

When Wangho checked his messages his heart stopped for a moment. 48 messages and 8 calls.  
He could understand being concerned but nearly fifty messages….really? It’s not like he was a child or something. He could keep himself safe… Yes he was a little air headed sometimes and paid more attention to his phone than to the street he was walking on...but it’s not like he would die from getting lost in the library.

When he passed through the revolving door separating the books part of the library from the group study section he looked at his phone.

_SUNGU CALLING_

“Yeah, what’s up?” He tried not to sound like he just ran through the whole library.  
“What the fuck do you mean what’s up?? You just disappeared on me in the freaking library!” Wangho realized that he should probably turn down the volume of his phone if he didn’t want people to hear everything.

“Fell asleep..” “How the fuck did you fall asleep in the library??” “Found a cool spot…and it was quiet sooo….” At this point he was just trying stop Sungu from overreacting. “Anyways, where are you? I’m outside now.”  
“Seriously dude fix your sleeping schedule. If you fall asleep on the bus sometime and get murdered by the driver I’m not even thinking about avenging you.” Silence.  
“Sungu..” “What??” “I asked where the flying fuck you are, asshat!!” He needed different friends...ones that would actually care to answer his questions.

“At home. Unlike some people I actually have stuff to do so I couldn’t waste my time searching for you.” Great. That meant his best fucking friend, whom he had grown up with, just went home without even trying to find and wake him. Just great. A headache began to creep up Wangho’s temples.

“Just tell me which bus I need to take ok?”

That’s what he got for being friends with Sungu, outgoing dude with the best grades in school and actual functioning person. Not to mention him being a gifted witch, having memorized most of his mother’s work already at the tender age of 18. Wangho didn’t really stand a chance against this.

Having average grades throughout most of his school career he wasn’t outstanding at anything. Not good at natural sciences or languages, sports was something he did not even think about. The only thing speaking for him were his inherent reflexes and speed, but even those were average for a Silvae.

Him being mixed did not make his life any better. Having lost his mother and little sibling to a complication at birth, only his human father remained. He worked for the government and could provide Wangho with the money needed for his very horrible lifestyle of gaming and eating, which resulted in him never being at home and Wangho basically growing up at Sungu’s house.

Not that he hated his father. They had a good relationship to be honest, even if they could not speak as often as they both wished they could. Still, his father made sure to come home for every holiday and birthday to celebrate together.  
Now that he thought about it, he probably had a much better relationship with his father than most people. While he didn’t see him much during his school days they always took their time for long talks and Wangho could always count on his father for advice on anything in life.

The bus ride to his dorm up the hill took him a bit over fifteen minutes. Though he didn’t register most of it, listening to his favorite music to stop all thinking from happening.  
He tended to do this a lot, completely isolating himself from reality by blocking out all sounds. It created a bubble around himself in which he could just exist, not having to think or communicate.

Wangho was promptly thrust back to reality when the bus came to a stop. It was the last stop, his stop, everyone was getting off. So he followed suit and after trotting down a street for a while, he reached his dorm.  
It was a relatively new building, freshly renovated a few years ago with a lively yellow-orange facade. This dorm complex had at least five different buildings and it looked like you had entered a small town. Directly next to the dorms there was a convenience story which Wangho already visited quite a lot for having only lived here for a few days.

When he entered his dorms he was greeted with the already familiar whiteness of the walls and the stairs he now had to climb to get to his floor. If you asked him, a dorm without an elevator was pure torture and had it not been for him being half Silvae he would literally pass out every time he arrived at his floor. Which was the seventh...he lived on the seventh floor…...torture.

He was audibly huffing when he arrived on his floor but got over it pretty quickly and continued his way down the white hallways. When he passed Sungu’s door, he kicked it loudly to let him known that he arrived home safely. Two doors further he entered his code at the door and entered his small room. He didn’t even bother changing his clothes and just laid down on his bed and started drifting off to the music in his ears and to memory of a gentle voice.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooo....I'm back?? 
> 
> Yeh I kinda had all kinds of stuff to do with classes and just....getting even enough motivation to get myself sth to eat so writing was not really something I could do sry...  
> BUT I'm writing tonight I promise, so here's the last of the chapters I wrote half a year ago (this one is not beta-ed I believe so excuse any mistakes...) 
> 
> Still have absolutely no idea where I wanna go with this story just so you know...could be horrible

It was 7:45am on a chilly Wednesday morning and Sanghyeok was getting ready for work. Since it was just the beginning of the semester he could still help out in his parents’ coffee shop, which he promised them to do until he moved out. Since he was probably going to live with his parents until he got his masters or even a PhD, which was going to take at least a few more years, he had to continue helping out for quite some time.

 

Since the shop opened at 8am and he was in charge of opening it, he went down the stairs to get to the shop. He lived with his parents in an old house passed down in their family for quite some time now.  
The shop made up the first floor of the building while the family lived in the upper floors of the house. From the outside the shop looked small and one would not even notice it if you didn’t stumble upon it while wandering through the small streets.

 

When Sanghyeok got to the door, he unlocked it and changed the sign from “closed” to “open”. He then proceeded to turn on all the lights and wore his apron. He already began making an Iced Americano for his friend that will no doubt sprint into the shop in five minutes.

 

As soon as he finished preparing the drink, said friend basically fell through the door huffing and struggled to get to the counter. “Hyung-”  
“Here you go...” Sanghyeok was used to this situation. Every weekday Seunghoon would come stumbling into the shop as soon as it opened, asking for an Iced Americano and then go off sprinting to the lab.

Since Seunghoon was studying Biology in his 2nd year, he had a lot of courses to attend while also simultaneously having to help out in the lab in the mornings. This meant that a great amount of coffee was needed to keep him awake for the day. And since he was friends with Sanghyeok, even if they both did not remember how this friendship started, he basically got his morning coffee for free. But since Sanghyeok was not THAT kind of a man, Seunghoon owed him a meal once a month...an expensive one.

“Thanks Hyung, you’re the best~”  
And off he was.

He would probably stop by again in the evening to get the much needed caffeine and use the quietness in the library section of the coffee shop to study until at least midnight. Sanghyeok was very used to this routine as they had it going on for one year now. Nobody really remembered, not even Jaewan with his brain of an elephant, how this group of friends came to be.

Junsik swears it was in the first month of their second year at university when a tired and stressed out Seunghoon was napping in the coffee shop and they decided to let him stay until after closing times. Apparently this was their starting point and they’ve been close ever since.

At 8:30 am Junsik arrived for his shift at the coffee shop. “Yoo!”, he greeted with a smile on his face. He went to go change in the staff room. “Where are your parents?” “Still asleep. They asked me yesterday to open the shop since they were out drinking with friends.” Laughing, Junsik came behind the counter. “Sometimes I wonder how your parents manage to not end up in hospital for drinking as much as they do.”

While they continued to talk, the first customers staggered in one by one, craving caffeine. That basically described the whole population of this town, tired students in desperate need of a vacation even though the semester just started.

It was a town that was basically composed of university buildings with the population being mostly uni students from all around the country and the realm shadowing it. Even though this university was the first inclusive one, with most of the students still being human there were bound to be some conflicts.

Near the coffee shop there was the town square where demonstrations against inclusiveness were held frequently even though five years already passed. As a result, this quiet coffee shop has become a safe haven for all mystical beings for the time that such a demonstration takes. A lot of the regulars that came by were otherworldly students and even though Sanghyeok did not know them by name, Junsik sure did.

Since it was just a small coffee shop, two people sufficed for the morning. At around 10am his parents came down and took over the counter, so Sanghyeok could grab his stuff and go to his linguistics lecture.

The lecture was held in the linguistics building that was situated directly next to the canteen, which was very convenient. With his long legs, the walk took him fifteen minutes and he arrived a few minutes before the lecture started.

He didn’t always know what he was going to study, but since his family was native to this city, and he could never leave them, he knew where he would be studying. And after graduating high school with an average to good score he decided to just study something, that he was curious about. That’s how he came to study this mess of a major. Languages always fascinated him and since he was pretty bad at actually learning them, he decided to study languages themselves. This semi-science was the perfect mix between analyzing language itself and learning fun facts to use in everyday life.

For example, his Phonetics and Phonology professor was an avid believer that orthography sucked and that languages should rather make up their own alphabets and writing systems than using the Latin one. Because if you look at French, most of the words are not pronounced the way they are written, which is really impractical for everyone trying to learn the language. _How is l’eau pronounced “l’o”??_ Sanghyeok just didn’t get it and agreed on this aspect with his professor and as a Korean he was pretty proud that their writing system made more sense than most.

After almost half an hour of constant drifting off Sanghyeok realized, that he should probably pay more attention to the lecture that is going on. It was an introduction lecture about historical linguistics, which is the field that he was most interested in. Relations between different languages and how languages changed over the course of a few centuries was always something he was very interested in. Seeing how language was changing at a rapid pace now, with Internet culture influencing the way the youth was speaking, slang and new idioms being used by most of the Korean population, it was something he felt needed as many people as possible researching it.

Loads of tiny informative facts were thrown in today’s lecture because it was still the beginning of the semester and the lecturer still had the energy to make an effort so that his students don’t fall asleep.

 

One of the most fascinating recent changes in Korean for him was the adoption of the phrase “Have you eaten?” instead of asking if one has been well. He’d never really thought about why Koreans said this as this was a common phrase and he was asked this almost five times every day by different people. But it was a really new expression that was adopted in everyday language because of the Japanese colonial period and the Korean war, when food was scarce for the mean people.

Quite some time was spent on explaining this phenomenon in today’s lecture, since it served as an example for cultural changes within one language.

He was also quite interested in old Korean, as he grew up watching a lot of period dramas, since his mother really liked them. The way of speaking changed a lot since then and a lot of English terms have been adopted, which is why he wants to know a lot about how this came to be.

This lecture talked a lot about these changes and the way in which one can recreate old languages. He learned about different sound shifts and when they happened, about theories to which language family Korean might belong and how language has recently changed.

Since he had been spacing off for the first hour of the lecture, he had no idea what they were talking about before, but now they were focusing on introducing small changes in the Korean language as a sort of appetizer for this course. Although it was only the first lecture, Sanghyeok decided to actually focus on it, so that he could maintain his perfect GPA and would still receive his scholarship.

Even though this university’s tuition fees were not as high as the ones for the SKY universities, it was still a big amount of money that had to be paid for attending four years of university for his bachelors. If he wanted to do his masters as well, as he had planned, and maybe even continue with his doctoral degree at least another four years would be added to that and the money needed would be way too much for his parents, running a small coffee shop all by themselves.

So he decided to get a scholarship for at least the first four years and if everything worked out, he could get through his first degree without ending up in debt.

“Ok everybody, that was all for today. Class dismissed.” Half the room was already out of the door by the time the professor finished his sentence. Since Sanghyeok was always quite the slow person, he only started packing his stuff after the class was officially dismissed.

By the time he was out of the door he could already feel his empty stomach complain about not eating again. And since he only had two minutes at most to walk to the canteen, he headed towards it. Even though he was not a fan of large crowds, especially while eating, the canteen was very convenient for him. And because of that he had a table that was basically reserved for himself - mostly because nobody could find it, as it was hidden behind a small wall and some plants.

After finishing his lunch slowly he cleaned up his tray and descended the stairs out of the canteen when someone basically fell into him from behind, almost rolling down the stairs. Sanghyeok did not know how but he managed to stop the person from basically breaking their neck. Really who was this careless around stairs?

“Hey, you ok?” Still kind of holding the person up with his arms, he tried to at least get a look at the their face. For a split second he could make out soft cheeks and strangely golden eyes that were mostly hidden under a hoodie and behind glasses. But directly after meeting with Sanghyeok’s gaze, the person curled up again, seemingly wanting to disappear in their over-sized hoodie.

“Yeah...thanks I guess..” Sanghyeok wanted to scoff….What kind of an answer was that? “Sorry….you can let go..” Still kind of dazed by the whole situation, he let go and in a matter of seconds did the person disappear behind a corner.

_What a strange person…._ was basically the only thought running through his mind while walking back the usual way to the coffee shop.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok so.....I know this took me a while but like the first half of the chapter has been written at least six months ago and I tried really really hard to make this a longer one lol  
> also..should I maybe add a tag for coffee shop au?? because a lot of this is gonna take place in a coffee shop....  
> I also may have to include some heavy timeskips cause I really really want to incorporate the new kids somehow....

It has been two full weeks since the orientation, which Wangho still believed to have not been necessary. He has already become intimately familiar with the interior of the library to the point of him dreaming about just sitting in there and reading away. His classes had started last week and since he was in his first year – majoring in both cultural studies and elvish – he had all of his classes in the same two buildings located directly next to each other on the main street.

Him only having his classes in one street, meant that Wangho was only familiar with a small part of the town and would be lost if he had to go somewhere else. This lead to him exploring the city after his morning classes when both Haneul and Sungu went and had lunch at the canteen. After his less than pleasant first try at eating at the canteen, he just gave up and picked up something to eat at the library’s cafeteria.

He had now been aimlessly walking for a while when he arrived at the center of the town. This part seems to have existed for a while, since the houses were older and more traditional than the parts close to the main street. Here, there were some small traditional Korean houses built next to modernized versions with more that one floor, but still retained a nostalgic feeling. Shops were at the forefront of most of the houses and small food stalls were standing at the side of the road. The roads in this part of the town were too small for cars to fit, so only motorbikes and bicycles could be seen on the streets.

Wangho started to stroll through the streets, weaving through the many students standing at the food stalls, getting their lunch. The street started to clear up after a while and got broader. When he arrived at the end of the street he had reached the town square, where he saw a big mass of people standing around the fountain located in the middle of it, blocking every way.  
 _Ah fuck….what is this? There is a perfectly good park like two streets down from here...why can’t they do their shit there??_  
As he didn’t see any other way to get to the other side and was too lazy to walk through the small alleyways to find a way around it. So he decided to just fight his way through the crowd. Since he was so small it shouldn’t be a problem, right?

Wangho fixed his hood and headphones, cranking up the volume of his music to the maximum, and made himself look as small and insignificant as possible while starting to meander his way through the crowd. He had made it ¾ of the way when he received multiple shoves from the back and fell to the ground. The impact of the fall onto a very uneven street cause him to wince from the pain.  
He only realized the absence of his glasses, headphones and the hood on his head when he heard someone scream “We’ve got us one of those long eared fuckers here!!”.

He broke out in cold sweat while frantically trying to gather his phone and headphones. His glasses where a fingers reach away when he was grabbed harshly by his hair and forced to stand up again. “Oh no wait..it’s just a halfling bastard.”, someone sneered in his ear while examining every inch of Wangho’s face. Once more was he tossed around, with hands harassing him from every side, hateful words spat in his direction.

“Abomination” “Bastard” “Half-breed”

Insults that he had tried to shove to the back of his mind were thrown around while he was desperately trying to find a way out of this apparent group of racists. He had managed to work himself slowly to the edge of the town square when he was grabbed by the arm. Not able to find words anymore in fear of hyperventilating, Wangho just tried to shake of the hand as best as he could but to no avail. Letting himself being dragged in a state of shock, he didn’t register anything.

The rushing of his own blood was so loud in his ears, that he couldn’t hear anything else for a few minutes. With clenched eyes, he just tried to concentrate on not breaking down into a crying mess. That’s when he started making out a muffled voice.

“Hey……..hey….you ok? Hello??” The person sounded almost as panicked as Wangho, whom he tried to comfort. The voice became distant again, seemingly calling someone else.  
Then someone touched his arm.

“Easy..” Huh? When did his breathing become so rapid? “Breathe slowly….in…..and out.” He tried to follow along. “Ok that’s good, in and out.” This went on for a good few minutes with two hands providing him emotional and physical stability by their ever present touch on his arms.

As soon as his breathing became more stable Wangho opened his eyes to find a young man, roughly his age in front of him looking at him concerned through his thick framed glasses. Behind him, a second guy was standing wearing an apron, gripping it hard and looking definitely unable to handle the situation. Wangho once again looked at the man in front of him and as soon as he caught his eyes, something broke in him.

Streams of tears clouded his eyes while his hands tried to hide the evidence by furiously rubbing them away. His breath became faster again and soon he was hiccuping while trying not to sound like a total crybaby. A mission which he failed horribly at.

And again there were the hands stopping him from rubbing his eyes and the assuring voice trying to calm him down. “Hey...hey it’s ok.”  
Wangho didn’t know what came over him but as he heard the reassuring tone he instinctively threw himself in the arms of he owner of the voice. As soon as he came into contact with the warmth of the other person’s chest, his breathing started to settle again and his tears began to seize. A very primitive part of his brain told him to never ever let go again.

Wangho could feel the the arms, of the person he was using as a crying pillow, hover over his small frame, not exactly knowing what to do. Slowly the hands came into contact with his still shivering back, awkwardly petting him like a dog.

Whatever it was that helped him relax, he was grateful. He had grown accustomed to Sungu and Haneul being there for him when panic attacks like these happened, but without them here he succumbed to the horrors of his own mind way too fast. It has also been a long time since he had faced racial prejudice this strong, not having to face any of this since he dropped out of high school and got homeschooled for the last two years.

Having calmed down a significant amount enough to get his brain working he again, he realized the awkward position he found himself in.  
 _Omg brain what did you do?? Why the fuck did you think hugging a total stranger was a good idea???_

Slowly letting go of his temporary shoulder to cry on, Wangho couldn’t bring himself to lift his head, What if he just hindered the other person from doing important people stuff? He probably just made a total fool out of himself.

Just then he realized that he didn’t even know where he was. While still not lifting his head, he observed his surroundings and just then remembered that his body was also capable of using other senses than seeing.

He heard the slight chatter from another room, the sound of a kitchen?  
He could feel the wooden boards underneath his fingertips, the warmth of the room.  
He could smell the distinct aroma of freshly brewed coffee.

A coffee shop, but not the front. No, he was in the break room, judging from the distant sound of the customers.

Finally Wangho trusted himself enough to look up to the person still awkwardly sitting in front of him, his hands now uselessly hovering in the air again.  
He looked thin, lanky. His clothes definitely were the right size but seemed way too loosely fitted. He simply wore a white button-up shirt with a brown apron tied around his front.

His black bangs would be falling into his eyes had it not been for the thick framed glasses preventing them from doing so. An almost expressionless, extremely pale complexion stared at Wangho with a little bit of wonder and concern mixed with a big amount of not knowing what to do.

“Hey...is he ok?”, a hesitant voice sounded from behind glasses guy.

Wangho’s heart almost leaped right out of his chest when he realized that he’s been staring right at glasses guy’s face for a good few minutes. “Yeah I think so….wait here for a minute.” When glasses guy got up and left the room, he collected himself, uncurling and looking around.  
That’s when he realized something is missing.

His glasses.

The panic came back full force and he started scrambling, looking for his glasses. “Fuck fuck fuck, oh no…..” He couldn’t find them anywhere. His head ended up hanging low again, his bangs covering his eyes. “Why does this always happen to me??”. A tap on his arm and a cup full of hot tea being held right under his nose lead to Wangho looking up again.  
“Camomile tea….helps me with relaxing a lot.”

“Oh….thanks.” Wangho took the cup from glasses guy, hanging his head low again. “So…..uhm….thanks for….helping me…I guess...uhm”  
He threw an awkward look at glasses guy and the other dude behind him.

“Oh!! I’m Bae Junsik!”, other dude enlightened him. “That’s Lee Sanghyeok-”, he pointed at glasses guy. “-and this is his parents’ Coffee shop if you were wondering.”  
“Uh….I’m Han Wangho….” He didn’t know what else to say.

Glasses guy – Sanghyeok, he reminded himself - took that as his queue to return to the front of the shop and tend the customers.

Wangho sipped on his tea trying not to burn his tongue. But since he is Han Wangho, and an idiot, he ended up with a burned tongue that felt like a cat’s tongue for probably the next two days.

“So….uhm...are you a first year?” Junsik tried to start a conversation. “Because it seems like you are pretty lost...”  
Wangho looked up from his cup of tea. “Yeah...it’s be like..three weeks maybe since I moved here...well not HERE as in the middle of the city...I live in the dorms uphill.” He pointed vaguely in the direction of his dorm. At least….he thought he did point in the right direction.  
“Oh hey that’s pretty convenient!” Exclaimed Junsik with an excited face. “Living up there I mean….Cause of the whole mini town thing going on, with the supermarket and bank and swimming pool and stuff you know? Also a lot of buses that drive up there.”

“Yeah...”

_Silence…_

“Well….if you want you can go to the front and like..grab a book or something….I wouldn’t try to go out there before they stop their demonstrating thingy...” When Wangho heard books his whole figure seemed to grow while life flowed back into him. _They’ve got books in here??? What kind of books?_

“Just come with me!” Junsik snatched Wangho’s cup out of his hands and went through the door to the front, forcing Wangho to also leave his spot and carefully approach the door. Carefully peaking, he saw that not a lot of people actually were in the coffee shop, or so it seemed. When he stepped out, he saw the people hiding between bookshelves and plants.

He could feel it in the atmosphere of the room, the magic in the air, indicating that most of the guests were not human. He could see a Shapeshifter, even though he was not sure _what_ they were, between the bookshelves and he could see a few fairies near the plants, sipping some herbal tea, talking about something and never shutting up. But what he didn’t even need to see but was the only thing he could concentrate on after having stepped into the room, were the three elves sitting near the window.

_Montae….fuck…_ He scrambled to put his hood up but failed as his hands could not stop shaking. Even if he encountered the most violent racist humans he ever saw today, he was not prepared for the mental torment of having to listen to stuck up Montae (or “high elves” as they call themselves”) gossiping about him being a half blood.

He still had not managed to pull up his hood and was currently hiding next to the counter, his eyes never leaving the group of elves, when he felt the hood being straightened and pulled over his head and a pair of glasses shoved on his nose. When he adjusted said pair of glasses he looked to his right only to be greeted with Sanghyeok’s back, as he already went back to his position behind the counter.

A warm, weird feeling that made his stomach contract distracted him so much that he forgot to let go of the glasses, still having his left hand weirdly hovering near his face.  
 _Wtf…...wtf????...Wangho...no...nonono we are so NOT doing this...nope…_

“Hey Wangho you coming??” Junsik’s voice ringing from between the shelves snapped him out of his thoughts and had him swiftly disappearing between the rows of books.

Even though this wasn’t a full library, at least half of the shop was made up of a fair amount of bookshelves. From what he could see there was anything from children’s books about dinosaurs to kinky adult novels distributed randomly across the shelves.

“So...you can basically just grab any book you want and read it here.”, Junsik explained to him. “For regulars we also allow books to be borrowed over the weekend but most people simply leave them here with a bookmark or something.”

Wangho had followed him to the last table behind the bookshelves, a fairly sheltered space where one could only catch a few glances to the front of the shop. Junsik’s worried expression never left his face. Or was it sleepiness?? Wangho couldn’t tell.

When Junsik really looked at him a surprised look appeared on his face, followed by a sly smirk.  
“Well I’m just gonna leave you alone for now kay? If you need something just like...scream..or come to the counter if you wanna be a civilized person.”

And with that he was off to the counter singsonging “Sanghyeokiiiiiieeee~~ Why are you squinting so much?? Lost your glasses~? -hey, hey now don’t hit your co-worker!!”

Wangho couldn’t suppress a slight blush before he fixed the glasses sliding from his nose bridge and found himself a book to read.

\------------

His tea was long gone, the empty mug now standing on the table and he was on the last chapter of the book he picked out, book about the life of an astronomer and his studies. Even though it was not exactly his field of expertise he could imagine himself watching documentary after documentary on the secrets the universe had to offer.

His mug being taken away from the table shook him out of his focused reading mode and he found himself once more staring into piercing dark eyes. Quickly averting his gaze, Wangho franticly sat up straight. “Shit uhm...it’s probably late and you are closing the store...sorry uh-”  
“No!….No, it’s ok...finish your book, I was just...like...cleaning up...still half an hour until closing time...” 

Sanghyeok left him alone again and so Wangho resumed reading. 

After Wangho had finished the book, he returned it to the exact spot where he had found it and decided to peak around the bookshelves for any other customers. When he found none, he innerly let out a sigh of relief and stepped forward into the front of the shop, watching Sanghyeok give tables a last swipe.

He felt incredibly awkward standing around there, but he also couldn’t just leave because his stuff was probably still in the back room. 

After Sanghyeok shoved the last chair back in place he looked up. Wangho had already taken off the glasses, wanting to give them back to their rightful owner. He would somehow figure out not to get a panic attack on the way home.

“I just...wanted to thank you for helping me...and give you your glasses back?” 

He was about to give Sanghyeok his glasses when he saw him shake his head lightly. 

“You need them don’t you?”

Slowly, Wangho retracted his hand. Not quite knowing what to say, he lifted his head slightly only to be met with strangely observant eyes.

“I still have a spare pair, no worries.”, Sanghyeok said while walking towards the back room. He came back with Wangho’s stuff and gently placed it on the counter. 

Wangho still had not moved from his spot next to the counter, glasses still in his hand, when Sanghyeok came to stand in front of him. Bony hands gently took the glasses and once more placed them on Wangho’s nose. 

Heat was rising high onto Wangho’s cheeks but this time he could not bring himself to look down again, so he let his eyes wander. His focus was anywhere other than Sanghyeok’s face, resulting him to look like he was going to bolt at any minute.  
And that was exactly what he did. 

“I’m sorry for all the trouble I caused you.” He bowed, grabbed his stuff and was almost out of the door when he heard a voice hesitantly calling after him.

“If you want to I can show you my optician for new glasses!” 

After the door closed Wangho stood still for a few seconds. _Shit….why is my heartbeat so loud.._

Knowing that dwelling on this would not help him getting home, he just started walking.

~^~


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uhm.....hi...long time no see??
> 
> so I have been struggling quite a bit with finding inspiration to continue writing even though I had this chapter halfway finished MONTHS ago  
> but now it's here and tbh I wanted to make it as long as the previous one but I just feel like I dragged the scene already for longer than it needs to be so I just decided to post it...un-betaed
> 
> whatever, here it is I hope u enjoy ^^
> 
> btw if you have any constructive criticism or any other little side comments feel free to write a comment n stuff ~

Sanghyeok’s days mostly just consisted of going to class, and going to the library afterwards. When his classes started late in the day, he would help out with the coffee shop in the morning for a few hours and on days without classes he would basically spend his time brewing coffee and snatching new books from the shelves to read.  
Yesterday, his day was quite an eventful one. When Junsik had brought in a seemingly terrified first year, he didn’t quite know what to do except brew a mild tea. But it seemed that it worked out well and when he saw the first year’s face, he seemed very familiar. Those warm eyes, timidly hiding behind golden bangs had burned themselves into his brain.

Even though a day has passed he could not stop thinking about where he knew said student from. But then again this city wasn’t the biggest so having seen a person once was not that big of a deal. He probably had seen half of the students studying at this university once before, even though nobody quite burned themselves into his mind like this particular golden haired one.

Today was one of Sanghyeok’s rare days of not having the first shift in the morning, since it was a Tuesday which meant classes after classes without a break. And after a long day of lectures and tutorials Sanghyeok was on his way home to start his shift at the coffee shop.  
Sometimes he wondered if his parents weren’t secretly enjoying putting him through this hell of working on a Tuesday after class. But being the good son he was, he arrived at the coffee shop half an hour before his shift starts, after making a small detour to get something small to eat for dinner.

When he rounded the last corner to the coffee shop, he spotted a hooded figure shuffling around in front of the door while looking through the windows again and again. Sanghyeok’s brain immediately woke up from its state of indifference as he approached said person.

“Hey uh...not going inside?”

The person visibly froze before lifting their head, revealing warm eyes hidden slightly behind a soft golden fringe, heart shaped lips hanging open as if to deny any accusations.

To say Sanghyeok was stunned by the thoughts he was having was not an understatement. He definitely was, stunned that is.

In the time it took Sanghyeok to get his brain functioning properly again, the person facing him had the time to get his act together.

“Thank you...for yesterday”

A pair of hands holding a pair of glasses appeared in Sanghyeok’s field of vision. “Here’s you glasses.”

Surprised that he was already getting them back Sanghyeok looked directly Wangho causing the latter to swiftly hang his head again, hiding away in his hood. Seeing this Sanghyeok’s expression began to soften the slightest bit.

“Hey...you know..I don’t really need them right now as much as you probably. So how about you use them until we get you a new pair of glasses?” His voice was laced with caution, not knowing how the other would react.

“We?” Again Wangho slowly lifted his head, revealing his eyes and having the confusion pouring out of them.  
“Yeah…..it kind of is my fault that I did not think to look for your glasses when you couldn’t…Or maybe it’s Junsik’s fault...” He could see Wangho’s confusion grow as the seconds passed. “Anyway uhm... we could go order you some new glasses now if you’ve got the time….There is a shop a few streets away..”

Still clutching Sanghyeok’s glasses in his hands, Wangho answered “But aren’t you busy?”

“Well...technically I still have like...half an hour left before my shift starts and it’s not like my parents don’t own the place soo...” A bit embarrassed being so straightforward Sanghyeok scratched the back of his head.

Not quite knowing what do answer just yet, Wangho just stood there contemplating his choices. Sanghyeok took opportunity to open the door to the coffee shop and shout to his coworkers “Hey I still have something to do could one of you cover for me if I don’t get back when my shift starts?”, earning him a thumbs up by Jaewan and eyebrow wiggles and suggestive looks by Junsik. Rolling his eyes at what was unfortunately his best friend, he closed the door again and turned back to Wangho.

“Let’s go?”

Wangho did not quite know what else to do than follow Sanghyeok as he again had the glasses pushed up on his nose and was guided down the street away from the coffee shop.

Shortly after they arrived at the place Sanghyeok had mentioned as it was actually just two alleys away from the coffee shop.

Being the awkward idiot he was, Wangho just followed Sanghyeok into the shop, watching the older greet the optician and explaining the case, completely zoning out.

He only broke out of his stupor when Sanghyeok lead him to go choose a frame for his new glasses.

The store had quite the variety, sorted by price points from KRW 10.000 up to luxury brands worth like KRW 100.000 and style. Being the broke student he was (or more like he made himself believe), he only really looked at the cheapest frames they had.

Now the thing Wangho did not count on was the change of glasses trends in the recent years resulting in a significant lack of thick frames. He used to still have the same glasses he had in middle school, big and nerdy while being excellent at obstructing the view of his eyes, only changing the lenses when he needed stronger ones.

What was the problem with the new glasses trend you ask? Well….thin metal frames meant to look delicate and soft and not obstructing the view of ones face where not ideal for a person trying to hide their eyes. (And colored contacts were not a thing Wangho would ever try again...)  
Staring hopelessly at the abundance of thin frames glasses he thought about getting more expensive glasses just to get a thicker frame.

Sanghyeok seemed to sense his dilemma and just chose one of the models.  
“Here...try this one.”

Having turned Wangho’s head and setting the glasses on his nose, he nodded approvingly. “Not bad...”

Wangho looked in the small mirror situated between all the different models. He eyed himself sceptically with Sanghyeok closely monitoring his expression.

“No? Hm..ok, then how about this one?”

After trying on countless pairs of glasses, thin framed, thick framed, older models and newer models Wangho couldn’t deny that he liked the look of the thinly framed glasses. He had arrived at a frame he really liked and was staring at his reflection with a conflicted look on his face.

“I think these suit you really well.”

Simple, warm words. Sanghyeok seemed to have a 6th sense for times when Wangho needed encouragement.

“Also they make you look really pretty….very soft...”

That last sentence, mumbled, barely audible, caused a gray noise in Wangho’s head, getting intenser while his blush spread from his ears and neck up his face. Pretty…..he just called me pretty…

“-for the exam?”

“Huh?” Wangho had not registered anyone even speaking to him and consequently had not heard anything that was said to him.  
Two sets of eyes looking at him expectantly, one certainly slightly amused.

The optician repeated his words. “It seems like you have settled on a frame and since you don’t have your former glasses anymore we have to do some testing, so if you would follow me for the exam?”

Wangho was confused. “Why do I need an exam?”

“To determine how bad you eyesight is and fix you the right glasses?”

The employee was also visibly confused as to why he even had to explain this.

And then Wangho realized his mistake. He didn’t actually tell them that he his former glasses weren’t prescription glasses. While they had lenses, he just used them to obscure the view on his face and did not actually need them to see. Perks of being half elven he guessed. It seems like he needed to explain.

“Uhm...I actually have perfect vision?” That earned him a confused frown. “I just...had glasses because..of other reasons...”

Wangho gradually shrunk down even more into himself. Having to explain that to another person was never his favorite part. Nobody understood, not even Sungu did.  
Now he was just looking down on his feet expecting the employee to lash out at him why he even came to the shop if he didn’t need glasses, but it never came. Instead he just heard an “Ohh...” like a big revelation came around.

“Well then let’s just go over the other stuff we can do with non-prescription lenses shall we”

And with that the employee went over to the counter again while Wangho stood there dumbfounded.

“We can still do stuff with the lenses like filtering out blue light if you use a lot of electronic devices to strain the eyes less and there is this new-” Wangho just let himself be led by Sanghyeok to the counter and chose something he did not know would even do anything for him.

After paying he was asked to come back half an hour later to come get his new pair of glasses and was promptly led back to the small coffee shop Sanghyeok worked at.

“If you want you can wait in there and I can uhm..make you some tea?”

Wangho found himself quickly agreeing, still in a daze and quite confused. Because after he himself had payed for his glasses Sanghyeok had also bought himself a new one. Wangho was really not sure when the latter had had the time to decide on a frame because he did not even notice him trying one on.

“I thought...it might.. make you feel less uncomfortable...if you had someone to also switch glasses at the same time..”, the older had mumbled when they had just stepped out of the shop.

Now Wangho was sitting in the quiet coffee shop, sipping on his green tea latte. It had always confused him how adding milk to green tea brought out a nutty flavor in the tea but he was quite glad it did, as this was the only way he liked green tea.

His mind strayed to such a trivial topic in order to avoid thinking about his heart fluttering in weird ways when a certain somebody was around.

They had only met twice but his heart had already seemed to give up on denying any attraction, the traitor.

Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad to let somebody in...somebody new...somebody that was not Sungu or Haneul...


End file.
